Lalibela: the eighth wonder of the world
It's the 8th wonder of world . One's called Roha and the capital of the Zagwe Dynasty wich ruled over Ethiopia from the 10th century to the mid- 13th century. It was King Lalibela who build the 13 rock-hewn churches. Lalibela is a city in located in central part of Ethiopia. It lies within the former province of Wollo. It is located at 2500 meters above sea level at 12.04° N 39.04° E and has a population of 8,484 according to the 1994 census. Lalibela, previously known as Roha, is named after the king. The word itself, which translates to mean "the bees recognizes his sovereignty" and the people of lalibela still recount the legend that explains why. The legendLalibela was born in Roha in the second half of the twelfth century, the youngest son of the royal line of the Zagwe dynasty, which then ruled over much of northern Ethiopia. Despite several elder brothers he was destined for greatness from his earliest days. Not long after his birth, his mother found a swarm of bees around his crib and recalled an old belief that the animal world foretold important futures. She cried out: -The bees know that this child will become king. But trials and tribulations followed. The ruling king feared for his throne and tried to have Lalibela murdered and persecutions continued for several years - culminating in a deadly potion that left the young prince in mortal sleep. During the three-day stupor, Lalibela was transported by angels to the first, second and third heavens where God told him not to worry but to return to Roha and build churches - the like of which the world had never seen before. God also told Lalibela how to design the churches, where to build them and how to decorate them. Rock-hewn churchesOnce he was crowned, he gathered masons, carpenters, tools, and the land needed for the building. The churches of lalibela are said to have been built with great speed because angels continued the work at night. Many scoff at such apocryphal folklore. The 13 Lalibela churches, however, silence the most cynical pedants. These towering edifices were hewn out of the solid, red volcanic tuff on which they stand. In consequence, they seem to be of superhuman creation - in scale, in workmanship and in concept. Close examination is required to appreciate the full extent of the achievement because, like medieval mysteries, much effort has been made to cloak their nature. Some lie almost completely hidden in deep trenches, while others stand in open quarried caves. A complex and bewildering labyrinth of tunnels and narrow passageways with offset crypts, grottoes and galleries connects them all - a cool, lichen- enshrouded, subterranean world, shaded and damp, silent but for the faint echoes of distant footfalls as priests and deacons go about their timeless business. Four are completely free-standing, attached only to the surrounding rock by their bases. These are Beta Medhane Alem, the House of the Savior of the World; Beta Ghenetta Mariam, the House of Mary; Beta Ammanuel, the House of Emanuel; and Beta Ghiorghis, the House of St George. Although their individual dimensions and configurations are extremely different, the churches are all built from great blocks of stone, sculptured to resemble normal buildings and wholly isolated within deep courtyards. They represent, as one authority has put it, the ultimate in rock-church design.... One is amazed at the technical skill, the material resources and the continuity of effort which such vast undertakings imply. Beta Medhane Alem is particularly striking. More than thirty-three meters long by twenty-three-and-a-half meters wide by eleven meters high it is the largest, surrounded by a colonnade that supports the projecting eaves of the low- pitched, saddle-backed roof. The interior is equally impressive: it has five aisles with flat ceilings, a nave with a barrel vault and eight bays - which are separated by a forest of twenty- eight massive columns. Polished for centuries by the pressure of countless feet, the stone floor reflects shafts of light from apertures in the walls high above.
"I weary of writing more about these buildings, because it seems to me that I shall not be believed if I write more ... I swear by God, in Whose power I am, that all I have written is the truth." Like more episodes in the long history of this country, there are a lot of legends about this King. One is that his older brother poisoned him and during a three days sleep he was brought to heaven, where he was shown a city of rock-hewn churches which he replicated. Others say that he went into exile to Jerusalem and got a vision to create a new Jerusalem. And so it is. A small gorge is called The River Jordan and there is the tomb of Abraham. Others tell that the Templars from Europe build it.
Many improvisations were so vital, so uplifting, that they have endured to the present day as living expressions of the central and lasting values of Christian Ethiopian culture. Paramount among these priceless legacies, like a great heart beating out an ancient but powerful pulse, is the monastic settlement of Lalibela on a natural 2,600-metre rock terrace surrounded on all sides by rugged and forbidding mountains in the northern extreme of the modern province of Wollo.
look for tour package including the Lalibela |
Yes indeed this is a place worth your visit, even the UNESCO underlined
the importance of Lalibela for its cultural heritage.
One
of the earliest Europeans to see Lalibela was the Portuguese priest Francisco
Álvares (1465 - 1540), who accompanied the Portuguese Ambassador
on his visit to Lebna Dengel in the 1520s. His description of these structures
concludes:
The 11 medieval monolithic cave churches of this 13th-century 'New Jerusalem'
are situated in a mountainous region in the heart of Ethiopia near a traditional
village with circular-shaped dwellings. Lalibela is a high place of Ethiopian
Christianity, still today a place of pilmigrage and devotion. 
